Member of Parliament for St Michael North East, Mia Mottley
The pace of implementation of policies for education in Barbados must be sped up.
That is according to Member of Parliament for St Michael North East, Mia Mottley, who was speaking on the fourth day of the Estimates Debate in Parliament.
“I believe that we are trending in the right direction, but our problem comes back down to pace of implementation. It is not so much a political issue, but it is an issue of managing 4,000 bodies across 120 schools, and getting some kind of uniformity of application on the basis that we all recognise that those reforms that were introduced in the 1940s by a colonial government could no longer take Barbados into the 21st Century,” Mottley said.
Speaking about the National Certificate of Secondary Education (NCSE) which is set to come out in 2012, Mottley said, “The truth is we never thought that it would take 12 years, and something must be wrong that it could take that long to be implemented.”
She said she is concerned about pace of implementation. “We have to find a way of ensuring that education, which is a non-partisan sector, can operate smoothly along an agreed path of objectives.”
Mottley added that there are excellent opportunities now for private investment by Barbadians and Caribbean people to establish a post-secondary institution moving up to tertiary level in the island. (Barbados Advocate)
